Accountability court to hear Sharif's graft cases on Aug 1

The Accountability Court on Monday announced that it would hear ousted Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's remaining two corruption cases - Al Azizia and Flagship Investment references on August 1.

During the hearing today, when Accountability Court-I Judge Mohammad Bashir enquired on the presence of Sharif's counsel Khawaja Haris, a secondary counsel replied that he was on his way, Geo News reported.

The counsel added that the appeals filed by the Sharif family in the Avenfield case would be heard at the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on July 31.

The Accountability Court judge briefly adjourned today's hearing to wait for Haris's arrival to the court. However, after the recess, the judge decided that he would await the instructions from IHC.

Following this, the hearing was adjourned for the day and the Accountability Court would now hear the corruption cases against the Sharif family on August 1.

In the last hearing on July 18, Haris had reiterated his reservations about the same judge hearing the proceedings of all the three corruption cases against the Sharif family, Geo News reported.

The Accountability Court judge replied that he wrote the matter to the IHC and added that transferring the case from one court to another court did not come under his jurisdiction.

On July 17, The IHC cancelled the bail requests of Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Captain (retd) Muhammad Safdar in connection to the Avenfield properties case.

A two-judge division bench comprising Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kyani issued a notice to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to submit a response on appeals filed by the Sharif family.

The bench rejected the appeal to grant bail to Sharif, Maryam and Safdar, and directed the NAB to submit its reply to the application seeking to suspend their conviction, ARY News reported.

On July 6, Sharif and Maryam were convicted in absentia in the Avenfield reference case by the Accountability Court. While the former was given ten years of imprisonment and slapped with a fine of eight million pounds, Maryam was awarded eight years in jail and fined two million pounds. Also, Safdar was given a one-year sentence without any fine.

While Sharif and his UK-based sons, Hussain and Hasan are named in all the three corruption cases - Avenfield reference, Flagship Investment and Al-Azizia reference, Maryam and Safdar are only named in the Avenfield case.